Jim has this thing that he says when I have an idea that he thinks is a bit over-the-top, but he’s trying to be neutral.

“Krissy, that’s hardcore.”

Sometimes it sounds like encouragement, sometimes it sounds like he thinks I’ve lost it. So when I started telling him that I wanted to try baking with sprouted wheat and that I was going to make the sprouted wheat flour myself, I could tell that he thought I was crazy. “Krissy,” he said, with his head cocked to the side like he couldn’t figure out who I was, “that’s hardcore.”

So what if I’m a little crazy overly ambitious? It keeps things interesting? I can’t really grow and harvest my own wheat from the ground up, but I figure this gets me a little closer to the source. Sure, I could order sprouted wheat flour online, but where’s the fun in that?

I soaked them over night then put them in my sprouter to give them the time to do their thing. It took about 2.5 days. This is not a project to embark on when seeking instant gratification.

Once it was sprouted then I had to dry the berries again before grinding them. That was a cinch thanks to one of my great new Christmas presents this year, my Excalibur 3900 dehydrator. A couple of hours in there and we went from moist sprouts to:

Grind-ready in my handy-dandy friend Edgar the Vita-Mix.

Bam! 30-45 seconds later my flour was fragrant, ground and ready to go.

Now the question is, what should I use my first batch on? I’ve got about 2 cups worth of flour. What do you think?

Animals are supposed to be able to recognize things that are harmful to them and withdraw from the edge of danger. When we see fire, we retreat. When we come across an unknown berry in the woods, we don’t eat it.

Bindhi is apparently not that bright. She is terribly attracted to two big kitteh no-nos- chocolate and coffee. Sigh. At least she looks cute when she’s sniffing cookies or when she wraps her paws around my arm and pulls with all her might to smell my mug.

Recently Leigh paid me a very high compliment, calling my Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie recipe from 100 Best the “perfect chocolate chip cookie”. Aw… That inspired me to whip some up with chocolate chips and pistachios. So good! I love that Trader Joe’s sells preshelled pistachios, it makes life so much easier. (For those who have an interest in the chemistry of baking, notice how the shape of our cookies is different around the edges. I softened my margarine in the microwave and overdid it a but, it ended up slightly liquidy. The cookies where still soft and chewy, but you can see how it affected the shape. Interesting…)

I was going to post a recipe this week for vegan fruitcake (that actually tastes good!) but thought I’d do a little pole and see which recipe you’d like more. What do you think?